A tricky place, this interweb.
The gravelly voice of the Times of London was forced to say it was sorry after falling for a wikiprank.
Ronnie Hazlehurst – composer of lots of irritatingly memorable tunes – died this week at a fine old age after a successful career.
The Times – along with every other news organ in the land – diligently rushed to the usual sources to cobble together some knowledgeable prose on the old chap’s life.
Thing is, it seems, the usual sources now include Wikipedia.
The Times included in its version the fact that Mr H had helped compose S Club 7’s 2000 hit Reach.
Although, to be fair, it is irritatingly memorable.
However, this was, in fact, rubbish. Some joker had added that detail into Ronnie’s Wikipedia entry as a jape. Little did they know that one day the joke would be on a hapless Times reporter.
The moral of the story is – don’t believe everything you read on Wikipedia, the web, or come to think of it, anywhere else.
I don’t believe everything I read – period.